“Congress Could Not Cut Its Way Out of a Paper Bag”

With the U.S. debt ceiling deadline quickly approaching, various members of Congress have come up with a host of measures to supposedly cut government spending.

However, upon closer review, these spending cuts are quite misleading, according to MarketWatch’s Kurt Brouwer.

This afternoon, Brouwer wrote that “The bipartisan ‘Gang of Six’ group of Republican and Democratic Senators has been in the news with a plan to cut the deficit by $3.7 trillion over 10 years. Of that total of $3.7 in reduced deficit spending, $2.7 trillion would come from ‘cuts’ and $1 trillion from tax increases.”

Brouwer went on to say that “Unfortunately, many Americans are falling for news reports that tell of budget slashing or Draconian cuts or whatever.  Of course, the cuts are always going to come next Tuesday or next year or in 10 years, just never today.  And, any cuts that are actually put in place are not cuts at all as a real human being would view them.  Rather, they are cuts in the rate of spending growth.  That is, Congress wanted a 10% increase, but only got a 5% increase, so that’s a cut.”

He later noted that “The spending cuts of $2.7 trillion are supposed to come over 10 years.  Right.  Isn’t that convenient.  Defer those tricky cuts to a later Congress.  How brave.  As though this Congress can direct what Congress is going to do 10 years in the future.”

As a result, he offered a rather prescient critique of the U.S. legislative branch when he stated that “Congress could not cut its way out of a paper bag.  It’s just not in the Congressional DNA.  Don’t buy the rhetoric because that is all it is…political posturing and tired Congressional rhetoric.”